As SBI PO Prelims will end on 7th May 2017. Those of you are done with their prelims exam, are now starting SBI PO Mains preparation. While in Prelims, you study to crack the cut offs, in Mains you need to score well because the marks of Mains are calculated in the final selection (merit list). The SBI PO Prelims was just a trailer the whole movie will be displayed on mains examination. So now is the time to prepare for SBI PO Mains to strengthen your chances of becoming SBI PO this year.

Read how to prepare for SBIPO Mains Exam 2017. This article on “How to Prepare for SBI PO Mains” will provide you smart strategy to prepare for Mains along with Study material & Quizzes. You can also download this article as PDF once you are done reading!

How to Prepare for SBI PO Mains 2017

#1. Do you Know the Exam Pattern & Syllabus Thoroughly?

Ask yourself if you know what you need to study, before you start studying randomly. A well laid out & detailed syllabus for SBI PO Mains will give you an edge over studying randomly from cheap study materials available in the market.

Also, you need remember the SBI PO Mains Exam Pattern to know the sectional time limit, each section’s marks and number of questions per section. This is the last thing you need to be confused about while preparing! Here is the exam pattern:

Objective Test – You have to attempt 200 questions in 3 hours. Switching between the sections is not allowed.

Section

No. of Qs

Marks

Time Limit

Reasoning & Computer Aptitude

45

60

60 min

Data Analysis & Interpretation

35

60

45 min

General Awareness about Economy/ Banking

40

40

35 min

English Language

35

40

40 min

TOTAL

155

200

3 hrs

Descriptive Test – The descriptive paper will be of total 50 marks and you have to complete it in total 30 minutes. This test will check your Letter Writing & Essay Writing skills.

Note that the Descriptive Test paper will be evaluated for only those students who will score qualifying marks in the Objective Tests.)

#2. Reasoning & Computer Aptitude – Hacks to Prepare for SBI PO Mains

For Reasoning Section, first prepare those topics which can get you more marks in less time!

These topics have more weightage in the exam

or can be less time consuming to solve.

You can achieve 100% accuracy (number of right answers) such topics.

Such topics are:

(1) Verbal Reasoning – You can expect 5-10 questions from Verbal Reasoning, based on Cause and effect, statement and assumption, statement and inference, course of action, statement and arguments, critical reasoning. You need to have a strong base in English to be able to solve these questions quickly with decent accuracy.

(2) Computer Aptitude – 5 to 7 Questions are asked in SBI PO Mains to test your computer efficacy. These questions are generally in the form of Flow Chart, Binary Logic, Number System, etc. High accuracy possible.

(3) Coding Decoding, Coded Inequalities, Syllogisms, Machine Input Output, Data Sufficiency – These topics can be asked for 3-5 questions each and thus account for 15-25Qs in total! If you work hard enough on these topics, will be easily able to cross the reasoning section cut off in SBI PO Mains 2017 and will also improve your chances of crossing the cut off.

To know more about how to prepare these crucial chapters, take a look at how to prepare Reasoning for SBI PO mains to get tips and quizzes to master these chapters!

This section is the most crucial part of SBI PO Mains. It checks your analytical approach to interpret data & information. How to Approach Data Interpretation Sets:

Before attempting the questions, you should look at the data or graph carefully, understand the concept and the proceed for the problem.

Try to shortlist the information in the structured, neat & clean format. Since some time you have to use the same value which you have calculated earlier.

While practising fix the time to each DI & try to solve easier questions first.

In SBI PO Mains exam firstly have a look at all the sets of DI. After that decide, which set contains less number of variable & is less time consuming. There will be 2 or 3 questions from each set of DI that can be solved in lesser time. Don’t try to solve all the questions of each set, if you find it lengthy in calculation.

To know more, you can take a look at Quant hacks to prepare for SBI PO Mains.

#4. How Aware are you? Get some General Awareness for SBI PO Mains

In General awareness (GA) questions, you either know the answer or you don’t. There is no scope to deduce the answer by just reading the question. However, you can still find the general awareness section confusing as the options can be closely inter-related sometimes.

Most of the GA questions will be related to Banking, Finance and Economy. In the time that you have until the exam, make sure you have the knowledge about:

Finance Committees and related reforms since last 2 years

Changes in Growth Rate of various sectors and parts of the economy – Agriculture, Industry, EX-IM, etc.

#5. Take Command Over English to Prepare for SBI PO Mains 2017

(1) Reading Comprehension – You should get into the habit of looking for keywords while reading the passage (as guided in Testbook WIN). Keywords help you track the answers to various questions within very accurately within seconds!

Practice on topics related to Banking & Economy, Business, Geo-politics, Governance, Education, Technology, Transport and Social Issues. Synonyms, Antonyms, meanings of Idioms/Phrases, Theme and main idea, inference based questions are also asked related to the passage.

(2) Word Association Pair – These questions test your knowledge of detecting the relation between two words. i.e. if they are synonymous or antonyms. You can expect either none or 6Qs of this type.

Usually, 4 words will be given and you need to determine which two words have either synonymous or antonyms relation between them. Your knowledge of vocabulary is tested. Here’s a practice Quiz:Word Association Pair Quiz 1

(3) Para Jumbles/Sentence Jumbles/Odd Man Out/Para Completion/Sentence Completion – 5 to 10 Qs can be asked from these, which you can practice by solving at least 10 Qs daily + mock tests. Question will have 6 sentences which will need to be rearranged to form a meaningful paragraph. Sometimes odd sentence which does not follow the theme of passage can also be asked.